New Jersey Gas Station owner of Sikh Heritage shot dead

Davinder Singh, 47, a Sikh gas station owner was shot to death in Newark, New Jersey, by an unidentified assailant on May 30. The fact that there was no apparent sign of robbery or confrontation, family suspects the killing to be of hate crime.

The incident was being investigated by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Task Force, which includes detectives from the Newark Police Department, news reports said. But at press time the motive of the crime was not established, not the identity of the attacker.

ABC New York reported that Singh, 47, was shot at the Power Gas Station on West Market Street sometime before 4:25 p.m. May 30. Police said Singh of Iselin, was found unresponsive at the gas station and taken to a University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 4:45 p.m.

The report quoted Singh’s son Jatinder Singh as saying that he thought his father, who had moved to the United States from India 25 years ago, may have been targeted because he was Sikh and wore a turban. “There was no robbery, no struggle, no confrontation,” he said. “I don’t know what else it could be other than a hate crime,” he was quoted as saying.

He said that his father had been robbed before but had always fought back. “My dad came out to get some fresh air and the male came up to my dad, pointed a gun and shot him point-blank,” he said.

Detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Task Force were quoted by ABC saying that an investigation was on but not confirming if the case was being investigated as a hate crime.